Findings highlight areas that require attention if aspirations for community-oriented mental health care are to be realised, particularly integration of mental health into primary care.

Partial and largely conflicting data are currently available on the interplay between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) activity in adult obese men. This study was performed to evaluate the daily trajectories of salivary cortisol, specifically with respect to the salivary cortisol awakening response (CAR), a common method used to assess HPA axis activity. The main findings of this study were that adult male obese subjects who were newly diagnosed with severe OSA showed the following: (1) a flattening of the CAR; (2) levels of cortisol at awakening that were lower than those of the controls; and (3) maintenance of the physiological circadian activity of the HPA axis, with the highest hormone concentrations produced in the morning and the lowest in the evening. This study was also designed to investigate the effects of 3 and 6 mos of treatment with continuous airways positive pressure (CPAP). CPAP use resulted in a significant recovery of the sleep patterns disrupted by OSA; moreover, mild neuropsychological signs of depression and anxiety in severe OSA patients were concomitantly progressively improved by CPAP treatment. Furthermore, this study reports that 3 and 6 mos of CPAP therapy restored the presence of CAR and was able to significantly reduce the difference in the morning cortisol levels between the OSA and control groups. In conclusion, we report here that compared with obese nonapneic matched controls, OSA patients present a dysregulation of HPA axis activity, as shown by the flattening of the diurnal pattern of cortisol production in response to repeated challenge due to hypoxia and sleep fragmentation. This dysregulation was especially detectable in the first hour after awakening and restored after 3 and 6 mos of treatment with CPAP.

Older generation antipsychotics and antidepressants were used more frequently than in the countries of Western Europe. Psychotropic polypharmacy is a common practice. There is a need for adopting more evidence-based practice in psychiatric care in these countries.

Adult-onset Still’s disease (AOSD) is a systemic inflammatory disorder with an unknown cause characterized by high-spiking fever, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, hyperferritinemia, and leukocytosis. The clinical course can be divided into three significant patterns, each with a different prognosis: Self-limited or monophasic, intermittent or polycyclic systemic, and chronic articular. Two criteria sets have been validated. The Yamaguchi criteria are the most generally used, although the Fautrel criteria offer the benefit of adding ferritin and glycosylated ferritin values. AOSD’s pathogenesis is not yet completely understood. Chemokines and pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interferon (IFN)-γ, tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-18, play a crucial role in the progression of illness, resulting in the development of innovative targeted therapeutics. There are no treatment guidelines for AOSD due to its rarity, absence of controlled research, and lack of a standard definition for remission and therapy objectives. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids (CS), and conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) are used in AOSD treatment. Biological therapy, including IL-1, IL-6, IL-18, and IL-17 inhibitors, as well as TNFα or Janus-kinases (JAKs) inhibitors, is administered to patients who do not react to CS and csDMARDs or achieve an inadequate response.

The first drug discovered to be involved in the development of gingival hyperplasia is phenytoin, which is indicated in the treatment of epileptic patients. The other drugs are calcium channel blockers with vasodilating effect. The most important one is Nifedipine, while Ciclosporin A, which is used as an immunosuppressant in the prevention of transplant rejection, causes gingival hyperplasia as a secondary effect. Gingival hyperplasia can reach an impressive volume, completely covering the dental crown and affecting the masticatory and physiognomic functions. The elucidation of the mechanism, by which drug-induced gingival hyperplasia occurs, favoring factors and the choice of conservative or surgical treatment methods, emphasizing the prophylactic treatment. The study batch was subject to intraoral and extraoral clinical examinations and the data were included in the dental treatment sheet of each patient, 11 patients aged over 60 years, who came to the Clinic ... in the period 2014-2016. The diagnosis was based on the anamnesis, the clinical aspect of the lesions and the histopathological examination. After the surgical excision of the hyperplasia affected area, recurrence was prevented by dispensarizing the patients and controlling the bacterial plaque through rigorous oral hygiene. Treatment depends on the severity of the lesions, as well as on the physionomic and masticatory functions. Conservative etiological therapy is attempted, by removing the bacterial plaque and local irritant factors, by reducing the dose of drugs, or by changing the systemic medication.